Consent: Its Nature and Normative Relevance

Conference at the Centre for Advanced Study in Bioethics

Consent can make the difference between visiting someone’s home and trespassing, between battery and surgery, and between rape and sex. A conference on 21–23 June 2017 will deal with some fundamental questions about consent.

"Consent: Its Nature and Normative Relevance"

By consenting to an agent’s action, we often seem to change its moral status, turning an action that is morally wrong into a permissible
one. Consent can, for instance, make the difference between visiting someone’s home and trespassing, between battery and surgery, and between rape and sex. Because of its relevance in cases like the ones just mentioned, consent plays an important role in, e.g., medical ethics and the philosophy of (criminal) law.

While it is uncontroversial that consent often does make a difference to the moral status of an action, this phenomenon also gives rise to a number of questions, such as: What exactly is consent? How does it affect the moral status of an action and the rights and obligations of the people involved in it? Why is consent morally relevant at all? What are the criteria for a person’s consent to be valid? The aim of this conference is to provide an occasion for discussing
these and other fundamental questions about consent.

Programme

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

9:15

Welcome & Introduction

9:30 – 10:50

The Normative Force of Consent in the Moral, Political, and Legal RealmsMichelle Dempsey (Villanova)

Coffee break

11:10 – 12:30

Triangulating ConsentMicha Gläser (Zürich)

Lunch

01:30 – 02:50

Is Consent a Normative Power?Tom Dougherty (Cambridge)

Coffee break

03:10 – 04:30

Directed Duties and the Power of ConsentRichard Healey (Montreal)

Coffee break

04:50 – 06:10

The Normative Basis of ConsentAndreas Müller (Bern)

Thursday, 22 June 2017

9:30 – 10:50

Addressing Proles, not Archangels:
Consent-Giving in the Context of Clinical MedicineBettina Schöne-Seifert (Münster)

Coffee break

11:10 – 12:30

The Significance of Consent:
Against the Metaphor of TransformationArudra Burra (Delhi)

Lunch

01:30 – 02:50

Do Coercion, Deception, and Manipulation Invalidate Consent?
The Criterion and Paradox of Autonomous DecisionChristiane Turza (Münster)